1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and, in particular, to a technique for copying a plurality of pages on an image forming apparatus, such as a facsimile machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a facsimile machine has a transmitting mode and a receiving mode as well as a copying mode, so that a user of the facsimile machine can copy a page. That is, once the user feeds the page for copying and then, designates the number of copies needed when the machine is in the copying mode, the facsimile machine is able to copy the fed page to produce the designated number of copies. Although a plurality of pages are fed to the facsimile system, the pages can be always copied as long as the same number of copies of each are produced.
Therefore, even if the user feeds a plurality of pages for copying requiring different numbers of copies, the facsimile machine copies those pages while producing the same number of copies of each page. For this reason, it is inconvenient to feed each page for each copying amount separately and to designate each copying amount of the fed pages individually, for the sake of copying a multiplicity of pages requiring different numbers of copies of each page. In addition, the facsimile machine has many problems in that much time can be taken in feeding and ejecting page by page upon separately copying each page and in performing additional preheating caused by the delay time for reinserting each page, as well as prolonging usage time of the facsimile machine accordingly, thereby consequently increasing power consumption.
Hube, U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,31 6, entitled Apparatus Anid Method For Saving/Storing Job Run Information Generated By Processing A Job On A Printing Machine, discloses an arrangement in a printing machine which stores the parameters for each job (consisting of a plurality of pages to be printed) rather than storing the parameters on a page by page basis.
Murakami et al., Yoda, and Mathur et al., U.S. Pat. Nos., 5,129,016, 5,185,821 and 5,499,109, respectively entitled System For Registration Of Documents, Image Filing Apparatus For Serially Storing Input Information, and System For Transferring Messages Between Input And Output Devices In A Communication Device, all disclose imaging apparatus in which information from pages are received and stored in a memory for later usage, such as being printed.
Nakayama, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,770, entitled Image Communication Apparatus, among others, discloses a facsimile machine in which pages and data regarding these pages are stored. However, Nakayama does not teach or suggest the storage of pages and corresponding information with regard to producing copies thereof as in the present invention.